Game Designer
The video gaming industry is very big in Canada. In fact Canada is actually the third biggest video game producer in the world, behind U.S and Japan. The video game industry contributes $2.3 billion towards Canada’s GDP annually. Unfortunately it is not that easy to create a game, you need a lot of man hours and different jobs to create one. The first order of business would be to hire a game designer, who then would work with everyone else to create the vision in which the game designer has seen. What is Game Design? In the broadest term game design is everything and anything related to the idea of a game. Central theme or point, story, plot, the characters' back-stories; these topics are all part of game design. More importantly how one plays the game, meaning the rules, game score, controls; all these are a must in game design and a game wouldn’t work without them. Game design is the first step in the making of a video game; one must consult a game designer before making a game. Even if it’s a one man job they would still go through a game design process. What Game Designer does? One may ask what game designers do. As previously explained game design is everything and anything related to the idea of a game, therefore a game designer is the person in charge of creating an idea of a game and all of its components. These components include the rules of the game, the story line/theme/idea, characters, and any props if needed such as weapons or vehicles, and any different ways the game could be played. You wouldn’t be able to create a video game without a game designer; not only would you not be able to create a video game but you wouldn’t even have an idea for your game. As previously stated, if it’s a one man job then they would have to go through a game design process in order to plan out what type of game they’re making and what the game requires in order for it to work. When a game designer starts his designing process he/she must think about every component of the game, anything from a pencil that a character would use to a character’s persona. Usually the game designer works beside the story writer, but very often the game designer writes the plot himself. As the plot is developed the game designer must think about all the different props the character requires. They must think about the clothes that a character is wearing at any given moment of the game. They must think about the setting of the video game, whether it is in space or under the ocean. Game designers must come up with a basic level design for the game, which then pass it down to level designers who put more detail into the level design. Although there are times when companies don’t have level designers and it falls to the game designers to fully develop the level. Game designers must think about how to capture a person’s attention and make them more and more interested into the game; this may include designing a levelling system, scoreboard, rewarding system. The game designer must create the rules for the game; these rules will be the base of making the game work. Game designers must think of character development, they must introduce ways to make characters more life like and more entertaining to play with or watch. How to become a Game Designer? You cannot wake up one day and magically be a game designer. There are certain prerequisites you require to work for a company as a video game designer. You require at least a bachelor’s degree in Game Design to be hired by any company. You could also have a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, or Computer Science. These degrees should take on average about 4 years to complete. One of the best universities in Ontario that you could go to for Game Design is University of Waterloo. The prerequisites to get into the program are; you must have an average of 80 or above, you must also have taken advanced functions and calculus during your 4 years of high school. In order to become a game designer you must be interested in video games. You must understand what makes a video game fun, in doing so you should analyze different types of video games and break it down into the basics to see all the different components of different games and what makes them best sellers or utter failures. A game designer must have life experiences, that way he/she will be able to create interesting games that will be able to capture the player’s interest in order for them to buy it. How long does a Game Designer work for? A game designer on average has to work from 35-45 hours a week. Unfortunately game designing is a project base job, and you often have deadline. This means that if a game designer is on a project then he/she must work more to finish before the deadline, and if there is no project then he/she will work less hours and will most likely be let off early in the day. What is a Game Designer's salary? In the U.S. on average a game designer receives $90,000 every year. In Canada a game designer’s pay is very dependent on how much years of experience you have, as well as who you work for. A beginner game designer can make up to $36,000, and once you receive more experience you could make up to $105,000. Overall an experienced game designer could make quite a substantial amount of money if they work hard enough. What skills should a Game Designer have? A game designer must be able to work with 2D and 3D mechanics. They need to find a way to bring a game to life while working with 2D and 3D art concepts; all to show the world something new. A game designer must have skills in anthropology. The game designer must find ways to make the gamer happy as he/she would play through the game; you must entertain them and make sure they’re satisfied with the game. A game designer must have some architectural skills in order to create more realistic worlds/level. A game designer must be able to brainstorm. He/she must be able to sit down and brainstorm to think about game mechanics and whatnot. A game designer should be able to learn from the cinema industry to give their game more interesting story. Through the cinema industry you could learn what interest people. A game designer must have excellent communication skills; he/she must transfer their thoughts onto paper and then explain his/her ideas to everyone else who is taking part of the video game developing process. A game designer must understand the business world. He/she should be able to negotiate with producers, publishers, freelancers, investors, supporters; anyone that could contribute to the game. A game designer must understand economy in order to integrate it into their game, such as a reward system, a money system etc. A game designer must have some knowledge on computer science. He/she must understand today’s technology, their advantages and disadvantages. A game designer must have excellent management skills; he/she must know how to manage other people as well as their own time. A game designer must have excellent mathematic abilities, in order to calculate probability, risk analysis, point system, etc. A game designer must know how to use complex algorithms. A game designer must know how to incorporate music and sounds into their game because sounds and music adds more ambience and soul into a game. A game developer must understand physiology in order to play with the gamers’ emotion throughout the plot. He/she must also understand human behaviors in order to make the game somewhat realistic. Conclusion In conclusion, being a game designer is a very important in the video game industry. Without them there would be no thoroughly though out video games. A game designer requires a lot of different skills to be successful at his/her job; but in the end it is all worth it because after they gain some experience they could earn a substantial amount of money. Unfortunately for them, even though it may seem that creating ideas for a video game is easy, there are so many video games out there, trying to think of something original is not that easy. A game designers’ life can be very stressful depending on whether or not they have a deadline, when most of the time they do. Probably the most important factor of their jobs is whether or not they would be able to work well with others; simply because they must be able to give their ideas to programmers and graphic designers to make their vision a reality. Questions 1. What is the role of the game designer?© a) To think of an idea for a game and program it. b) To work alongside with programmers to create a finished project. c) To create an idea about a game such as the rules, the characters, the plot, the setting etc. d) To take the programmers work and translate it into pseudo code. 2. If working for a video game company, who would be the first person you hire?(a) a) Game designer b) Game programmer c) Graphic designer d) Business analysts 1. What is the most important skill a game designer requires?(e) a) Working well with others b) Be able to sit down at the computer for hours c) Taking orders d) Working well under stress e) Communication 4. How much hours does a game designer work for? (d) a) 45 + hours b) 35-40 hours c) Depending on project deadline d) 35-40 hours, can vary on deadlines. 5. How much do game designers get paid in Canada?(d) a) Average of $50,000 b) Between $50,000-$80,000 c) Average of $100,000 d) Between $36,000-$105,000 Do game designers need to know how to program?© a) Yes b) No c) A little bit Which is not part of "The big list of game design" © a) Anthropology b) Computer science c) Marketing d) Business What kind of degree wouldn't be able to be used to get a job as a game designer? (d) a)Computer Science b) Game Designer c) Computer Engineering d) Software Engineer Does a game designer have to work on level/map design? Yes or No? (a) a) Yes B) No Is game design a project based career? (a) a) Yes b) No